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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Boeing Co. announced Monday it will move two defense programs and an expected 550 engineering jobs from California to Oklahoma City in the next two years.
Boeing will move its C-130 Avionics Modernization program beginning in the first quarter of 2011. Its B-1 program is expected to move toward the end of 2012.

BERLIN (AP) — Second-quarter earnings at luxury car maker BMW AG surged to €834 million ($1.1 billion) as better selling prices and robust demand in China helped drive a strong increase in revenues, the company said Tuesday.
The company's April-June profit was above market expectations and up from €121 million a year earlier, while revenues climbed 18.

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co.'s 2011 heavy-duty pickups just came out in April, but already the company is boosting the power in their diesel engines and giving free upgrades to owners.
Ford said it just wants to give its Super Duty trucks all the horsepower they're capable of. But there's another motive: The Super Duty's power was recently eclipsed by General Motors Co.

MANCHESTER, Conn. (AP) — A warehouse driver who was asked to resign his job at a beer distributor went on a shooting rampage Tuesday morning that left nine people dead, including himself, and others wounded, company and state officials said.
The number of dead was confirmed by a Connecticut government official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

BEIJING (AP) — Government efforts to make China's fuel-guzzling economy more efficient suffered a setback this year as surging growth drove a boom in steelmaking and other energy-intensive industries.
Beijing is in the final year of a five-year campaign to cut energy intensity, or energy consumed per unit of economic output, by 20 percent to curb pollution and dependence on foreign oil and gas.

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — Hewlett-Packard Co. said Monday that it has agreed in principle to settle a lawsuit by the Department of Justice, which alleged that HP and other technology companies paid kickbacks to Accenture PLC in exchange for recommendations for government work.
HP denied "engaging in any illegal conduct.

I don’t think I have a criminal mind. Which is probably why I can’t seem to wrap my head around the idea of counterfeiting — at least how it’s being done in relation to pharmaceuticals.
Sure, I am quite familiar with other forms of counterfeiting; whether it’s a rip-off of a designer handbag made from the “hide” of the elusive “nauga” animal instead of real leather, or the genuine “faux” pearls I once saw advertised on late night television.

How does workplace life differ in Asia from the U.S.? I discussed this question with four Singapore-headquartered companies and found that there were a surprising number of similarities as well as a few differences.
CEI SMT Caption: CEI Contract Manufacturing Limited’s SMT area in Bantam, Indonesia.

“Looking for skilled, low-cost labor?” asks CNN. “Forget about India and China. How about Jonesboro, Ark.?”
Interestingly enough, this is no rhetoric. This statement highlights one of the more recently publicized (but not exactly new) phenomena in manufacturing known as “on-shoring” or, in the case of Jonesboro, “rural-sourcing.

The AirMist, from Lechler (St. Charles, IL), is an air atomizing spray nozzle that has been redesigned to provide increased flexibility and improved reliability. It can be easily combined with any of the interchangeable aircaps that go with it to create a wide choice of spray patterns, flow rates, and coverages.

The re-engineered Jet-Kleen Personnel Blow-Off Gun from Specialized Safety Products (Chicago, IL) is a safe and effective alternative to compressed air for dust, debris, and moisture removal, according to the company. The system is lightweight and portable, not to mention much quieter than compressed air.

Deacom, Inc. (Wayne, PA) has developed the addition of mobile access technology to the DEACOM Integrated Accounting and ERP Software System for manufacturers of all sorts. Mobile DEACOM now gives accessibility to ERP data — including sales orders, purchase orders, production jobs, and consumer relationship management — via any smartphone device.

BEIJING (AP) — Expansion of Chinese manufacturing activity slowed for the third month in July, as production, new orders and purchasing prices all declined, a survey showed Sunday.
The state-affiliated China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said its purchasing managers index, or PMI, fell to 51.

NEW YORK (AP) — As fears build that the recovery from the recession is petering out, analysts expect the manufacturing sector grew more slowly in July.
A swell of production in factories has helped lead the rebound for about a year as exports increased and companies rebuilt their stocks of supplies and goods.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Heavy-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc. said Friday it will build a parts plant for large mining machines and it expects to employ about 510 full-time and contract workers in five years.
Construction is scheduled to begin in November on the Winston-Salem factory where workers will machine, assemble, test and paint axle assemblies for large mining machines.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — There are eyes and brains on the table at Advanced Optical Systems, next to a big metal hand with a powerful grip.
The rugged little cameras, black boxes of bristling circuit boards, LED beacons and the automatic cargo hook assembly housed in what looks like a desktop beer keg are part of the company's Hermes autonomous pickup and delivery system.

CORNING, N.Y. (AP) — An ultra-strong glass that has been looking for a purpose since its invention in 1962 is poised to become a multibillion-dollar bonanza for Corning Inc.
The 159-year-old glass pioneer is ramping up production of what it calls Gorilla glass, expecting it to be the hot new face of touch-screen tablets and high-end TVs.

In the lastest edition of The RFID Network , Louis Sirico visits an aerospace and defense manufacturing facility, where RFID technology is being used to help simplify the complex process of building unmanned aircraft and guided missiles for the Department of Defense.